The Touring Diary

Day 8 (July15, 2012) Leh to Pangong and the plan was to stay there only and next day come back to Karu or Upshi. We started the day by 6 or 7 and got the bike ready. Checked out of the hotel to start for our journey to one the most beautiful lake probably in the world, The spectacular blue colored Pangong Tso located at an altitude of around 15,000 ft. Filled up the tank in leh and continued on the Leh Highway which also goes towards Manali. We filled up again after reaching serthi, this is the last filling station on the Leh Manali route. The next one is situated in Himachal Pradesh at the place called Tandi about 368 kms from this place. We filled up all the extra fuel cans that we were carrying with us. By this time I was noticing that the bike's tyre pressure is less and decided to get it checked at karu. The pressure was indeed less and I asked the mechanic if he can check if there is any puncture in the tyre. He checked and told, it doesn't look like there is a puncture. ...

Day 7 (July 14, 2012) So today was the D-day, today we had planned to do cross the world's highest motor-able road, Khardung La (18,380 ft). It was the ultimate for the Ducati Monster. I was nervous but not that worried as the bike had already proved to be handling the high altitude with ease. But still this is Khardung La we are talking about. We got the permits from DC office, met my old time friend Rigzin at the office who accompanied us in our first trip in Leh. Got a quick wash done on the bike and we were good to go. Khardung la is 42 kms from leh and we had not planned to beyond the pass itself. Hence we carried only the tank bag containing the camera, some basic spares and water bottles to keep ourselves hydrated. We had a lot of time for the ride to the top hence took leisure breaks and photos. Road was pretty smooth till south pullu. Monster was showing signs of resistance due to the altitude but nothing alarming. The actual test starts only when we cross south pullu till...

Day 6 ( Jul 13, 2012 ): Our next destination was Leh. We had to cover approximately 300kms from Drass to reach Leh. We got up early and packed up things. It was very very cold in the morning. It had rained all night and still overcast with a glimpse of sunlight here and there. I was worried if the bike will start after such a cold night weather. Took out the cover and switched on the battery, the bike was showing a malfunction mentioned "FUEL ERROR". I got scared if something bad has happened. I didn't crank it right away, thought it may just be because of the low temperature. After some time I tried starting the engine though the error was still coming on the console. The bike started in one crank with that error still there. I left the engine running for sometime while we were attaching the bags to the bike. I was relieved to see that the error had gone away as the engine was warmed up. Started our day's journey. Roads was in a bad state for quite a long time, it wa...

Day 5 (July 12, 2012) for the Monster it was the first test when we would be crossing Zoji La, first of the several high passes in the Himalayas. I was excited as well as nervous. We woke up early and started early as we wanted to avoid the Amarnath yatra convoy which was there till Sonmarg. It was a beautiful morning with a little cloud cover and sunshine. We reached Dal Lake clicked some pictures and meanwhile speaking to the morning joggers as well. Had breakfast enroute, some nice paranthas. It had started drizzling and the travelers coming from Sonmarg side were telling that it is raining more in Sonmarg. I was a little worried because Zoji La will be slushy and probably difficult to cross. But whatever be the condition the only way is through it  We reached Sonmarg with some stops in between, it was still drizzling but the beauty of Sonmarg was no less. Soon we were ascending Zoji La (11649 ft) and roads started to deteriorate. We were stopped by a road block due to the route...

Day 4 (July 11, 2023) was not a fun day in terms of riding. It was Amarnath Yatra time and as expected it was too crowded as thousands of pilgrims travel to Himalayas. We got up a little late and started late which meant it was bumper to bumper traffic all along. We weren't able to go fast which meant bike was heating up too early due to running in lower gears. Every now and then the console showed up 5 bars (usually bike's running temperature should be 3 bars I guess) in the temperature gauge which meant stop at some place and give the bike time to cool down before we could start again. And we also required rest due to stop and go traffic. Nothing much that happened this day that I could write here. We were very very slow and covered around 230 kms in 10+ hours and this delay was mostly due to the frequent stops we were taking. After reaching Srinagar I went and checked a house boat to stay in but there wasn't a safe parking place for the bike and we decided that we would ...